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The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.

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To commemorate the 70th anniversary of VE Day, we are launching a new feature, Second World War Day by Day and also a new Library to allow access to records which have previously been held in our offline archive.

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Aug 2017 - Please note we currently have a large backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 233877, your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit without contacting us first.

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Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.

Daniele Barrera 265 Infantry Reg.

Taken prisoner on the island of Crete, in October 1943 with the entire regiment,
transported by sea to Athens (Piraeus) and then launched into Germany with the military
led by Grecia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria, Germania up to 6C of Stalag Bathorn (Meppen).
The trip is lasting a month, because the rail lines had been bombed and some of the days you were still
on track and secondary is done on rail cars discovered wagons that were normally used for carrying coal.
We were 60 per wagon, pressed like sardines, and it was impossible to lie down on the floor for lack of space.
The rations consisted of 2 (TWO) loaves of black bread a kilo each for 60 (sixty) people per day,
and some of Gavetta brodaglia when it was possible.

From Stalag 6C were to take the middle class to bring to work in the countryside nearby,
we were at the end of November 1943 and in those bleak years it was very cold, too, because we
had just left our military uniforms without Pastro that was removed. Towards Christmas to all
in 1943 we were part of the mandates in Paderborn in a locomotive factory and in the evening
we brought the train in a camp nearby. After a month or so Paderborn was bombed and the factory
was almost transported destroyed.NOI came to Osnabrück in AUTOWERCKSTADREPARATUR that was bombed
in 1944 and transported to distrutta. Fummo MELLE and precisely where it was WELLINGHOLZHAUSEN workshop
that had been destroyed in Osnabrück finally came and freed by the Allies in April 1945.

In these two years we have suffered cold, hunger, ill-treatment varied humiliations that is
impossible to forget.

Pte. John William "Bill " Melnechenko 1st Btn. Royal Highlanders (The Black Watch)

My Uncle Bill never talked much about the War, but what he did tell us, is that he fought for us so we never would have to go to war again.

My uncle was 32 years of age when he joined the Canadian Army in Vancouver, British Columbia. After training he was stationed at South Saskatchewan Regiment near Regina, Sask.

Upon hearing of need for men for special duties, he volunteered and was sent to Scotland for special training. He has a number of medals listed in his files but just recently we discovered why and how he was a POW.

He became a member of the Duke of Wellington Division 656003, 3rd Infantry Brigade, 1st Battalion Royal Highlanders "The Black Watch". He did tell a few stories but they are not for the faint of heart. They had to do whatever it took to push forward and survive.

He was wounded in France in July 44, and after 6 weeks returned to duty. On October 8th, 1944 his regiment was under heavy fire and he tells of how two of his best friends were shot down. He saw the first one shot and ran out and pulled him into a trench, and then he ran out again and pulled back another of his buddies. Then he saw his last closest friend get gunned down and he ran out to pull him to safety when he was gunned down himself.

My uncle had bullet wounds from the top of his right shoulder down along his right side of his spine to just above his waist and then across his right side. He laid in a ditch for three days, weak and awaiting death when two old German soldiers found him, cleaned his wounds and carried him to a German Con. Camp. He was reported October 11th, 1944 as a POW at Stalog 6C.

Somehow, he make it home, recovered and spoiled us nephews and nieces. He was a silent man but I remember him having very bad dreams and how he didn't trust himself when he slept. He never married or had any children that we know of. He said after the war, he was not good material to be a husband or father. I don't know if I agree with that, as he was a wonderful uncle who always wanted the best for us. He just didn't want to see me with a gun in my hands even though it was for hunting geese or skunks.

He told me one time " He fought so I wouldn't or any of our family would ever have to carry a gun again."

Well, I'm married to a Canadian Forces service man and I may not be carrying a gun but we are at war again and my husband has been with the mission since its beginning. Have we lost what so many died and fought for not so long ago?
If anyone knows of my uncle, I would sure like to hear your story.

Does anyone who was interned in Stalag VIc remember a Polish boy named Josef Pawlyszyn? This is my late father. He was in the camp during WWII. He worked on farms and in a clothing factory. I have his papers and ID cards issued to him by the German government. He was from Stara Bircza, Prezmysl, Poland. Sadly, he died without ever having made contact with his family and he died presuming that they were all killed during the war.